Emulators VS actual hardware

[Coto]

in games like mother 3 where the button timing on battles is needed, no emu can't beat old hardware 8)

 

[matpower]

First rule of gaming: being able to play the game has the priority on everything else.

I don't care if I am not using the original hardware, I'm still having fun with the game. And besides, sometimes emulators DO beat consoles, if we think that no one is able to play GBA games nowadays using an original Game Boy Advance unless they mod the screen.
I am happy with my 3DS emulating all the good ol' glories, together with my Jap Micro and my Master Race PC. I am not going to get my Sega Master System II from the basement whenever I feel like playing Cloud Master if I have so many other ways to play it.

GBA SP should fix that issue with the screen.
I think I am the only one that keeps his videogames on a drawer for easy access.

 

[the_randomizer]

The only problems I have with original hardware, I'm too cheap for a CRT and I'm too cheap for a XRGB scaler, otherwise, retro games look pretty bad on LCD/Plasma TVs no matter what (240p looks really bad on a 1080p screen). On top of that, I have a hard time justifying the price of games based off of how long the game in question lasts. Like say a game lasts a few hours, but costs $50, I don't like paying that, but if the game is very lengthy, I've no issue. Mostly, I can't stand the way the pixels aren't filtered or "bleed" the way they did on CRTs back in the day, I liked that look to be honest. IIRC, you can even mod an Snes to accept RGB signals.

If I ever did buy a retro console, it'd be the RetroN5, which has HDMI support, save states and filters so the games don't look horrible on new TVs.

 

[Vipera]

GBA SP should fix that issue with the screen.
I think I am the only one that keeps his videogames on a drawer for easy access.

What would be the point, though? The GBA SP isn't the original console designed for GBA games, it was the regular Game Boy Advance!
Jokes aside, I also have my physical games near my desk. I just don't want to put consoles everywhere, especially the ones that are resting in the basement.

 

[omgpwn666]

I prefer my emulator, I can run my favorite old games on my PC without switching wires back and forth.

 

[garbanzox]

I ran emulators for along time, and have several USB adapters for classic controllers. But a few months ago I dug out some of my old consoles - NES, SNES, and N64 - and I bought flash cards for them. It's great playing on real hardware, but honestly, I'm not sure if it was a good idea or not. I might just end up selling my EverDrive carts and going back to emulating on my Wii. It's a lot less stuff to plug in to my AVR!

 

[the_randomizer]

I ran emulators for along time, and have several USB adapters for classic controllers. But a few months ago I dug out some of my old consoles - NES, SNES, and N64 - and I bought flash cards for them. It's great playing on real hardware, but honestly, I'm not sure if it was a good idea or not. I might just end up selling my EverDrive carts and going back to emulating on my Wii. It's a lot less stuff to plug in to my AVR!

The Wii does have some mighty fine emulators (which are better then the VC in every way)

 

[Foxi4]

I won't lie, when I want the "retro" experience then the original hardware trumps any kind of emulation, but when I just want to play the game, emulation is incredibly handy due to its convenience, cross-platform availability and the capacity to actually enhance the games in one way or another which is especially important with early polygon-based games that could burn your eyes with sheer "pixelosis".

I've been playing Resident Evil 2 with my girlfriend recently using ePSXe and I have to say, I quite enjoy playing it at an increased internal resolution rather than upscaled - the models are very crisp now and I like it a lot. It's not the same as sitting down infront of a CRT telly and holding a Dual Shock, but it's still a lot of fun.

 

[kristianity77]

Ive gotten loads into in old consoles since I picked up the JXD S7800. For the first time I can play near perfect 8 bit, 16 bit and PS1 all from one device. Im amazed actually that android emulation of the PS1 is just as good as PSP emulation of it was. I've recently discovered PPSSPP on android as well which if you opt to display PSP games natively on the screen, run at full speed. Add things like Mame into the mix and Neo Geo. Emulation is fantastic.

 

[cdoty]

The Wii emulates 8 and 16 bit consoles almost perfectly.

Some times I feel I spend more time pulling out and putting away a system that I spend playing.

Wii, and more recently the Ouya, have become my preferred way to play 8/16 bit games. The Ouya has the advantage of being able to drop a game in dropbox, and grab it on the Ouya. The Wii has the advantage of having a controller similar to the SNES.

 

[DaFixer]

Missing the floppy drive sound of the 1541 (C64) and Amiga 500.
And the real sound of the SID chip(C64), loading sound from old tape's (C64/ZX Spectrum)
Feel and Sound of old keyboard's.

But for 8/16/32 bit consoles/handhelds mosly I use emulators on my Wii and PC.

 

[the_randomizer]

Some times I feel I spend more time pulling out and putting away a system that I spend playing.

Wii, and more recently the Ouya, have become my preferred way to play 8/16 bit games. The Ouya has the advantage of being able to drop a game in dropbox, and grab it on the Ouya. The Wii has the advantage of having a controller similar to the SNES.

Speaking of which, there's an actual Classic Controller that uses a Super Famicom controller shell, they sell them on Amazon it seems

 

[Deleted-236924]

Emulators also allow you to keep backups of your save files in an extremely convenient manner.

 

[the_randomizer]

Emulators also allow you to keep backups of your save files in an extremely convenient manner.

And I refuse to solder on SRAM batteries or take apart the cartridges, too much work. Emulation is far more convenient.

 

[Foxi4]

in games like mother 3 where the button timing on battles is needed, no emu can't beat old hardware 8)

Don't be silly. Everything depends on the accuracy of the emulator, not the hardware used. There are ways to nail CPU timing just fine.

 

[the_randomizer]

Don't be silly. Everything depends on the accuracy of the emulator, not the hardware used. There are ways to nail CPU timing just fine.

Accuracy is vital, though it can be costly for performance and requirements if too much emphasis is on cycle accuracy, there must be a balance IMHO Bsnes is an example of what not to do, no Snes emulator should require a Core 2 Duo or Core i3 to achieve full speed with Super FX, S-DD1, etc emulation.

Snes9x comes to mind, it's not 100% accurate, but emulation-wise, it's the second best in terms of overally accuracy and compatibility.

 

[Deleted-236924]

And I refuse to solder on SRAM batteries or take apart the cartridges, too much work. Emulation is far more convenient.

Indeed, but then you can get flashcards such as the Everdrive and be able to enjoy the actual hardware without having to worry about that. (AFAIK it does have a save battery, but saves get written to SD card or something like that. I don't have one, but I assume there must be a way to get the save files written to SD card even if the internal battery runs dry, such as pressing the reset button on the system or soft resetting directly back to the main menu if possible.)

This is why the EZ-Flash IV is <3

 

[Foxi4]

Accuracy is vital, though it can be costly for performance and requirements if too much emphasis is on cycle accuracy, there must be a balance IMHO Bsnes is an example of what not to do, no Snes emulator should require a Core 2 Duo or Core i3 to achieve full speed with Super FX, S-DD1, etc emulation.

Snes9x comes to mind, it's not 100% accurate, but emulation-wise, it's the second best in terms of overally accuracy and compatibility.

The aim of the BSNES project was achieving 100% accuracy, not good performance. BSNES (arguably) reached full accuracy as the emulator now emulates each and every single SNES chip in existence and no doubt future versions (if there will be any) will improve in the performance area of things from now on.

 

[Coto]

Don't be silly. Everything depends on the accuracy of the emulator, not the hardware used. There are ways to nail CPU timing just fine.

wrong, games depending on VI will cause weird sound effects, or broken music, or de-sync.

for such there's just the real hardware, or an insanely fast comp

 

[Deleted-236924]

BSNES has already changed name to Higan and also supports GB, GBC, GBA and NES along with SNES.

I couldn't say if it emulates all of those with maximum accuracy, but I would assume it does.